UK Developers' Offer of Free Electric Car Criticized

Plan to offer electric or hybrid car with each home purchase in new eco-town seen as undermining efforts to reduce congestion and encourage public transport.

Published: 26-Jul-2008

A free car with every home is one of the options being considered by developers behind the 6,000-home eco-town plan for Long Marston.

An electric or hybrid car, such as a Toyota Prius, and a bicycle with the sale of every home is the latest deal developers St Modwen and the Bird Group have designed to lure buyers.

Antony Calvert, a spokesman for the developers, said: “We are interested in trying to convert local car use from conventional vehicles, which rely on petrol and diesel, to duel use hybrid vehicles and electric cars.

Powered by advanced lithium-ion batteries and two 67bhp (50kW) electric motors to drive the front and rear axles, the Mixim is a four-wheel-drive car with a theoretical top speed of 112mph and a potential maximum range of 156 miles.

The Air Car may do better than fuel-cell cars, but experts say that using grid power to charge a battery-powered electric vehicle is much more efficient than using electricity to compress and store the same amount of energy in a tank.

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